Earthquakes and Windstorms
by InkBlossoms
Summary: Seven drabbles in honour of Taang Week 2013
1. Regret

Sometimes, he thought it was his fault. Most of the time, actually, despite his friends telling him if he were there he would have died too. His friends told him that with Sozin's comet, a whole army of fire nation soldiers couldn't have been defeated, even with the avatar state. Despite that, something in his heart told him he could have done something.

But he had run away. He had left his home, his friends, behind, and they had paid the price. Would they still be alive, if the avatar wasn't an air nomad? If he wasn't an air nomad?

Toph found him sitting against the stone, his expression a far cry from his usual cheerfulness.

"What are you moping about now, Twinkletoes?" Toph asked.

"It's nothing," Aang replied.

"You do remember I can detect lies?"

"It's running away, okay?" Aang muttered,"I left my people to die!"

"So Aang, just a question here, how many elements did you know when you were living at the air temple?"

"Only air," Aang stated, not following Toph.

"And using only air, do you think you could defeat fifty firebending soldiers?"

"No," Aang replied, warily.

"And if they had Sozin's comet with them," Toph continued.

"Definitely not."

"And instead of fifty, there were five hundred?"

"This isn't really helping me..." Aang grumbled, "already know I would be no use, but the fact that I didn't even try is what bothers me."

"I think you had a reason for running away, and I think a lot of people would have done the same," Toph stated, "and, frankly, I think that whoever you didn't help before you were frozen, you're making up for it now."

"I'm helping them with problems from a war I wasn't there to prevent in the first place!" Aang shouted.

"It's not just that. War or not, Katara and Sokka would probably have spent their whole lives in the south pole. Katara would have been treated as less because she was a girl, and Sokka would live his whole life without meeting Suki or Yue."

"Katara would've found a way, and Sokka would love someone else, just as much!" Aang retorted.

"And Suki? She said she liked being able to help the world."

"She could have travelled the world without me, I'm sure."

"Zuko? Banished forever at sea?"

"I'm sure the cause of that had something to do with the war!"

"Fine. Then what about me?"

"What about you?" Aang asked, confused.

"I would still be the little blind girl living in Gaoling. My parents would probably find me a "good match", and I would be expected to stay home all day, for the rest of my life!"

"Oh."

"And before you find some way that I could have done that, I have something to show you."

Toph grabbed Aang's face and kissed him.

"I definitely couldn't have done that," she smirked.


	2. Balance

Toph just balanced him out. It was a fact of life. Aang liked to think he balanced Toph out as well.  
When Aang wanted to skip firebending practice and go to town, Toph was the one who reminded him that everyone in Ember Island City wanted him imprisoned, or dead. Mostly imprisoned, he found. So Toph prevented Aang from being imprisoned.  
When Toph wanted to earthbend Sokka awake, Aang was the one who told her to just leave him alone, and that was how Toph avoided a whole day of a whining Sokka.  
One day, Aang wanted to fly around the island with Appa. Toph didn't even have to say anything, just stand there, and that was how the whole Gaang avoided being detected.  
Whenever Toph wanted to carve the cliffside into her likeness, Aang pointed out that it might seem a bit suspicious to, A, find a cliffside in the Fire Nation that had to be earthbent recently, and B, to have it earthbent to look like the Avatar's earthbending teacher (and a previous scammer). They had spars over that, but the jagged rocks could be dismissed to a landslide. And the island continued to have no idea that the world's greatest earthbender was on a villa by it's beach.  
Recently, Toph had helped Aang balance a more intense emotion. When Aang found Zuko giving Katara a gift, and getting a hug in thanks, Toph offered to balance it out with a gift of her own. And that was how Sokka had found them in a small ice cream shop, close to kissing.


	3. Manners

"I have more manners than both of you now!" Sokka claimed after getting a lesson from Katara.

"I was raised in a palace," Zuko said dryly.

"Oh...right, I have more manners than you, Aang!" Sokka revised.

"You've got me there," Aang replied, just as Momo caught the air sphere he was making.

"How about a bet of sorts?" Sokka asked, "at the dance tonight, we'll see who's the bigger gentleman, Zuko can be the judge."

"Why do I have to record it?"

"Because you're impartial! Suki will let me win, and Toph and Katara will both choose not-me, which will be Aang," explained Sokka.

"I also want to choose not-you right now," Zuko stated.

"Yeah, but there's less of a chance than Katara and Toph!" Sokka said, "so do you accept, might avatar?"

"Sure. What are the stakes?" Aang asked.

"How about Momo?"

"But I already have Momo."

"Looser has to become bald?"

"I'm already bald..."

"If Sokka wins, he gets Momo, if Aang wins, Sokka shaves his head," Zuko suggested.

"Deal," Aang said, and moments later, Sokka too.

"C'mon Momo, meet your new master!"

"I think you meant, 'get ready to see me bald!'" Aang joked.

"So, you want me to teach you manners?" Toph asked.

"Yeah," answered Aang.

"I'm not going to make this easy on you..."

"You never made anything easy for me!"

"Good point."

Three hours later, at the dance, Aang was trying to make sense of the manner jumble in his head. Sokka strode in confidently, and Aang found himself doubting he would win.

"First event, dinner. Who can make it through without embarrassing themselves," Sokka announced as they sat down at the table. Aang tried to remember soup spoons and salad forks, and had to resist the urge to eat the dumplings with his hand, but at the end, it was worth it.

"Aang won this one," Zuko reported, "he won when you started to eat the roast beaverduck with your hands," he finished to an indignant Sokka.

"Next event, dancing!" Sokka announced. He grabbed Suki and started doing a traditional Kyoshi Island dance. Aang and Katara imitated sparring with waterbending, though they both struggled to keep from actually gathering water.

"Sokka won this round," Zuko spoke when they interrupted his conversation with King Bumi.

Renewed with victory, Sokka almost yelled, "Next round! Flirting!"

"How is that gentlemanly?" Aang asked, perplexed.

"It's fancy flirting," Sokka answered, "watch and learn."

Aang watched as Sokka tried, and failed, to ask an Earth Kingdom noblewoman to dance.

"I think I'll try something different," Aang chimed as he walked up to Toph.

"Would you like a dance, Miss Beifong?" he asked in a posh accent.

Toph, clueing in, replied, "It would be an honour, young Avatar."

Aang swept Toph out onto the dance floor, and started twirling her around. He dipped Toph and spun her around, they waltzed and leaned in and out, all while making pleasant conversation.

"I think Aang won this round," Zuko told Sokka.


	4. Family

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed, I haven't really acknowledged you before, but it really motivates me to write! This is just a silly drabble, set a few years after the war. **

"We should have five kids."

"No way, Twinkletoes!"

"Why not?"

"You aren't the one who has to birth them!"

"We have a whole population to grow!" Aang protested as he set the table.

"Two. Take it or leave it. One airbender, one earthbender."

"How about three? With one non-bender too!"

"Fine. But keep them away from Snoozles!"

"What are we going to name them?" Aang asked, sipping some soup.

"I dibs naming the earthbender and non-bender!"

"I think I'll name the airbender Tenzin."

"I'm naming the earthbender Lin," Toph stated as she took a bite out of her glazed turkey-pig.

"We could name the non-bender Sokka!"

"No way. What if he turns out as an idiot, too? How will we be able to tell apart 'Sokka, the idiot' from 'Sokka, the idiot'?"

"Don't you have faith in him?"

"It could be a her. So could the airbender."

"Well, the earthbender could be a boy."

"Lin could be a boy's name!"

"Not really, but whatever. We really should have an equal amounts of girls and boys. We should have four." Aang said, changing the topic.

"I'll think about it." Toph answered.

"And since four is an unlucky number, we should have 5 kids."

"I am not having a family of 7!"

"Would you like to have one of 8?" Aang joked.

"If you don't stop talking, you're not going to have a family at all!" Toph warned.


	5. Tattoos

**This is just a drabble set in the future, when Toph and Aang have children. It came out really late, It's 11:30 here right now, but I hope those of you still awake enjoy it!**

"Can I get tattoos when I grow up?" Lin asked her mother.

"Well, we'd prefer you wouldn't..." Toph started.

"But daddy has tattoos, and he was talking to Tenzin about how he would start getting tattoos!"

"Those are different, airbending tattoos, and unfortunately, there aren't any earthbending tattoos for you," Toph joked, trying to calm Lin down.

"How come Tenzin gets the tattoos, and special attention, and everyone looks at him when he bends!" Lin complained.

"Tenzin's special, but because of that, he also has responsibilities," Toph explained.

"Like what?" Lin asked, getting interested.

"For one, Tenzin has to start a family," Toph said.

"Eww, I don't want one of those!" Lin exclaimed, "I mean, Xin Lai is a handful, and she's only one baby!"

"Exactly. And Tenzin can't use tremor sense," Toph continued, "so he can't be a metalbending cop like you could."

Just with the mention of metalbending, Lin started jumping around, making 'swooshes' and 'ahhs' that Sokka would be proud of.

"How about we go to the nearby ice cream cake shop, and you can walk by the tattoo parlor and see if you'd still like to get one," Toph suggested.

"Okay!" Lin answered, happily. After walking by the shady tattoo parlor, Lin decided, with a mouthful of chocolate ice cream, she didn't want any tattoos yet.


	6. Lies

**This isn't my favourite, but I couldn't find any other way to put it. Again, thanks for the reviews!**

Toph could always tell when Aang was lying, she could tell when a lot of people were lying, actually. But she was beginning to doubt her lie-detecting abilities when Aang came up to her and said he didn't like Katara. Because Toph sensed Aang was a hundred percent telling the truth.

"But whenever you see Katara with me, your heart speeds up," Toph said, confused, "and you always leave gifts in our tent. When we got makeovers, I felt you fall off your seat as soon as we walked in!"

"You can tell I'm not lying, Toph," Aang reminded her.

"Maybe you're using Avatar superpowers or something, but I don't believe you!" Toph exclaimed.

"What did all the scenarios you listed have in common, except for Katara?" Aang asked.

"I was there too, but-" Toph started.

"I love you, Toph."

She could hear the sincerity in his voice, sense the truthfulness in his statement, and feel his lips on hers. So there wasn't anything wrong with her lie-detecting abilities, but there might have been something wrong with her common sense


	7. Realization

When Toph realized she liked Aang, it was like a gentle breeze that grew into a raging gale. At first, it was barely there, she had to think on it before she found it was romantic love. It could've easily be dismissed as friendship. But it grew in size and ferocity, and soon it was affecting how she saw Aang, her ears perked up when he was talking, a blush tinged her cheeks when he got too close, and she could feel her own heartbeat skyrocket. At first it was gentle, caressing her heart, but soon it was leaking into her senses, claiming the territory as it's own.

When Aang realized he liked Toph, it felt like a stone wall hit him. One day, Toph was a best friend, and suddenly she turned into a crush. It hit him hard, and cornered him closer and closer to Toph. As soon as he touched her, a brush on the shoulder, grabbing her hand to pull her away, or Toph correcting his stance, the wall pushed him closer to her.

When Toph realized Aang liked her, it was like splashing water onto her face. The world seemed brighter, and new possibilities opened up. She felt fully awake, fully alive, she didn't even know she could feel like this before.

When Aang realized Toph liked him, it was like a flame igniting in his heart, growing into a full blown fire. It consumed his body, taking over step by step, until all he could think about was Toph.

And when they were together, one element couldn't describe it all. They felt stable like earth, but free like air. It was refreshing like water, and comforting like fire. But it was so much more, and even four elements couldn't properly describe it.

**Taang week was so much fun, and I'm sad it's ending, cause it was cool working with the prompts! Thanks for all the hits and reviews!**


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